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The differences between environmental protection specialists and lead field technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become an environmental protection specialist, becoming a lead field technician takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, an environmental protection specialist has an average salary of $59,771, which is higher than the $40,838 average annual salary of a lead field technician.
The top three skills for an environmental protection specialist include hazardous waste, CFR and DOD. The most important skills for a lead field technician are customer service, data collection, and GPS.
| Environmental Protection Specialist | Lead Field Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $59,771 | $40,838 |
| Hourly rate | $28.74 | $19.63 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 9% |
| Number of jobs | 26,135 | 88,080 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 45% |
| Average age | 39 | 38 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 2 |
The duties of an environmental protection specialist depend on their line of work or place of employment. Typically, their responsibilities revolve around assessing and determining the level of pollution or damage in an area, gathering samples for scientific purposes, reviewing data and results, and providing recommendations to clients or government agencies. Furthermore, there are also instances where they have to summarize results and produce reports or presentations, coordinate with other specialists and scientists, and develop programs or projects to raise environmental awareness.
The Lead Field Technician serves as the assistant of the Field Supervisor. Their responsibility includes taking immediate action and making decisions for instances that individuals or organizations need their help. They are the one who implements and monitors a company's guidelines and policy and maintains the standard procedure of all the systems. Also, being an assistant, they can act as an overseer to determine the employees and equipment types that need to work smoothly and orderly.
Environmental protection specialists and lead field technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Environmental Protection Specialist | Lead Field Technician | |
| Average salary | $59,771 | $40,838 |
| Salary range | Between $39,000 And $91,000 | Between $24,000 And $67,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | Oakland, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | Nevada |
| Best paying company | Booz Allen Hamilton | Schneider Electric Industrial Services |
| Best paying industry | Government | Utilities |
There are a few differences between an environmental protection specialist and a lead field technician in terms of educational background:
| Environmental Protection Specialist | Lead Field Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 45% |
| Most common major | Environmental Science | Business |
| Most common college | Duke University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between environmental protection specialists' and lead field technicians' demographics:
| Environmental Protection Specialist | Lead Field Technician | |
| Average age | 39 | 38 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 61.6% Female, 38.4% | Male, 87.2% Female, 12.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 6.2% Asian, 5.0% White, 81.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% | Black or African American, 9.7% Unknown, 5.7% Hispanic or Latino, 17.0% Asian, 10.4% White, 56.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0% |
| LGBT Percentage | 16% | 8% |